Nikolai Hartmann one of the distinguished figures in the history of philosophy of the first half of the XX century. His teachings contains a theoretical transformation of several major philosophical trends like neo-Kantianism and phenomenology. However, as in the Russian-language and in the world research papers, the N. Hartmann's aesthetics remains little-studied. "Aesthetics" can be considered as a last work of Hartmann, completing his philosophical system. Hartmann is also known as a founder of "the new ontology", the movement basing on the inevitable dependence of any epistemology on ontology. In the tradition of neo-Kantianism Hartmann initially rejects the point of view of aesthetics, which allows us to talk about art as a continuation of knowledge. In contrast to the purely phenomenological position, Hartmann suggests his own decision on the transcendental orientation of the aesthetic act. In his study of the field of aesthetic Hartmann inquires into a question of the structure and mode of existence of the aesthetic object, as well as the act of examination, contemplation and enjoyment. Just as in the creation of its own epistemological theory Hartmann is guided by the desire to justify the assertion of the transcendence of the cognitive act, and knowable objects, considering the act of aesthetic perception. He also puts the emphasis on the specificity of being of the aesthetic object.
Hartmann keeps the focus on the situation in which cognitive attitude turns out to be a meeting-coincidence of our cognitive categories and the structure of the object. What is important in the aesthetic contemplation is the moment of going beyond subjectivity, the movement to unreal, the unreal, which has a source outside of us. The originality of being of an aesthetic object is characterized by the presence of several sources of being, which Hartmann calls “levels of Reality”. Another aspect of being of the work of art is the aspect of value. Art corresponds to the aesthetic value, which is based on all other types of values. However, the fundamental idea of Hartmann's aesthetic theory is the relationship of manifestation.
On the part of the object we deal with the relationship of manifestation itself. According to Hartmann there are two levels in the aesthetic object: the foreground level and the background level. So that the unreal manifests itself through the real. With a view to the subject the manifestation corresponds to the subject's ability of contemplation, consisting of two levels, such as the contemplation of the first and of the second order. The first of them is sensual, the second is supersensual (in terms of Hartmann himself), penetrating the outer side of things. The relationship of manifestation, acting in the aesthetic field, forms the essence of the structure of the aesthetic object. The work of art reproduces the level structure of life, but in the field of the unreal.